MG ZS 180

[Roverload]

Oh yes, I forgot. Just after I posted the last update I went on an epic Internet shopping credit card rampage. I thought I'd just get the vast majority of the parts needed for the underside plus some extras.

Firstly I went trawling for a complete flooring restoration kit, after reading through every item on Frost's website www.frost.co.uk (unbelievably handy). I settled on Dinitrol. I watched this video on rust proofing a Land rover, bought one of their kits that supplies everything in this video plus some of the tooling such as cavity hose and shultz gun etc. Pretty happy with my decision, hoping that somebody will now tell me that it really is that good!

Video here: https://youtu.be/dDl6CDjW0KI

Next on the list was tyres, easy decision, stayed with TOYO and got 4 new T1r's from Camskill for a good price, next up was Hel braided brake hoses, a new exhaust clamp, overalls, red calliper paint for that extra 10bhp and from Rimmed brothers I got 2 new Abs reluctor rings and dowels and then headed to Powerflex and bought front anti roll bar bushes and the 2 large polybushes for the trailing arms meaning now I have nearly all the polybushes coming for the rear end including the ones I bought with the Skunk2 LCA's. All in all my credit card is smoking waiting to be chopped up but I can't guarantee this won't happen again!!!

[Daston]

Roverload said:

As far as I can tell they go there because water is getting into the chassis leg. There's a rubber bing there, I've removed mine so the water can drain out before it gets there. Yours looks like it might be wet all of the time same as mine. Looks like you caught it nice and early though!

Good shout, the drivers side was wet even though the rest of the car was dry on Saturday afternoon. Is it the rubber bung next to the hole that you removed?

[Roverload]

As far as I can tell from the pics it's the one you've removed in this pic.

[Roverload]

Your jacking point look mint. Any chance you could grab me a couple of good close up shots? I've got to fabricate 2 new ones this weekend.

[Daston]

Roverload said:

Your jacking point look mint. Any chance you could grab me a couple of good close up shots? I've got to fabricate 2 new ones this weekend.

No problem, will get some tomorrow weather permitting. The passenger side (the one I have the photo of) already had that bung removed and was all nice and dry, didn't notice if the drivers side had one lol.

[Roverload]

Small update, parts have been turning up this week, i'm starting to get a direction with this car now. I plan on keeping her for quite a long time if possible but I want to have as much fun as possible in it, for the first time in my lifetime motorsport easy to access in West Cornwall with the spitfire raceway opening up at Perranporth airfield. they run Drift, Drag and soon Handling course / hill climb. I've done drag there before in it but i'd love to do the handling course regularly so the plan is this:

I've always wanted the car to be as close to restored as possible, so, either way the carpet, seats and sound deadening amongst other things has got too come out for welding and painting the floor pan, so once it's all done i'm going to hold off putting it all back together and just see how light I can make it without ruining it. i'm never going too get big power from that engine so the only way to gain speed is by bringing that power to weight ratio to task.

But first things first, got to get the floor pan mint and looking as fresh as possible. Pics.....

4 Toyo T1-R's and HEL brake hoses.


More polybushes, the llarge rear trailing arm bushes look like Satan himself created the task.


Dinitrol undercarriage system should really preserve the floor for years to come. Made sure I got the lance to get the cavity wax into every nook and cranny of the chassis legs.


Kids have been desperate to get involved so gave them tools and a new exhaust clamp, job jobbed.


Bargain of the week happened today, stopped at the local car boot for reasons i'm not sure of yet and found a brand new badge for an MG ZS for £1. Awesome as mine was beginning to fade.


And a quick polish today to keep up the shine. A day well spent!


Next job is design and make some new jacking points. Thanks for reading.

[iantek]

Loved my ZS180 saloon, it was my first propper performance car. The handling is great and it was a very underrated car. Glad to see you are restoring yours, I was disappointed when you said earlier you were going to track it! Please save this one for posterity!

[iantek]

Forgot to add, are the twin exhausts original? I'm sure mine was single exhaust.

[Roverload]

iantek said:

Loved my ZS180 saloon, it was my first propper performance car. The handling is great and it was a very underrated car. Glad to see you are restoring yours, I was disappointed when you said earlier you were going to track it! Please save
this one for posterity!

The exhausts were done by the original owner just after he bought it. It's getting tracked I'm afraid, but only for a short while. They're only small local events not a proper track day. I'll keep it stripped until I stop the leak coming in to the car and beat my mates golf on the handling course. Then once the smugness has worn off I'll be putting it all back together again.

[400SE Dave]

Roverload said:

iantek said:

Loved my ZS180 saloon, it was my first propper performance car. The handling is great and it was a very underrated car. Glad to see you are restoring yours, I was disappointed when you said earlier you were going to track it! Please save
this one for posterity!

The exhausts were done by the original owner just after he bought it. It's getting tracked I'm afraid, but only for a short while. They're only small local events not a proper track day. I'll keep it stripped until I stop the leak coming in to the car and beat my mates golf on the handling course. Then once the smugness has worn off I'll be putting it all back together again.

Yep, had it made as I thought it evened up the aesphetics of the rear and it made it sound a little nicer as well without going too loud. Got the original exhaust 'hole' sourround and rubber seal from MG as I wanted it to look as if it was original.

Really glad Roverload that you are going to all this trouble, still the best paint colour I ever chose I think.

[iantek]

Roverload said:

iantek said:

Loved my ZS180 saloon, it was my first propper performance car. The handling is great and it was a very underrated car. Glad to see you are restoring yours, I was disappointed when you said earlier you were going to track it! Please save
this one for posterity!

The exhausts were done by the original owner just after he bought it. It's getting tracked I'm afraid, but only for a short while. They're only small local events not a proper track day. I'll keep it stripped until I stop the leak coming in to the car and beat my mates golf on the handling course. Then once the smugness has worn off I'll be putting it all back together again.

Top stuff. The twin exhausts look good, suits the rest of the exterior styling. Here is the only picture of mine that I have left:



I currently have a Rover 75 2.5 V6 and it pulls nicely but nothing like the ZS. My silver car looks really tame compared to your yellow. I can't remember my reg to check the MOT database to see if it's still alive. I hope it's still knocking around somewhere....

[T313]

Great thread! makes me feel a bit better about throwing money at mine!
So far: Brake discs, callipers and pads & HEL hoses, suspension bushes & engine mounts, front drop links, clutch slave kit, thermostat, ITG induction kit, Federal 595RSR tyres..
Next: Front shocks & respray (the car was stood outdoors under sheeting for 6+ years and has lost a lot of lacquer).
Aiming to have it all done by the start of August in time for a driving day at Shelsley Walsh

[gweaver]

Roverload said:

Dinitrol undercarriage system should really preserve the floor for years to come. Made sure I got the lance to get the cavity wax into every nook and cranny of the chassis legs.

That's a lot of Dinitrol! I think it works - we waxed and Dinitroled my 200vi on several occasions and the underbody has held up pretty well.
Unfortunately the OSR panel perforated inside out many moons ago (waterlogged noise insulation), so I patched it with fibreglass. The outer sill in that area will need welding before long, but that's the new owners problem. He has a fleet of MGs and Rovers, so I think his tame welder knows what to expect..

[Roverload]

400SE Dave said:

Roverload said:

iantek said:

Loved my ZS180 saloon, it was my first propper performance car. The handling is great and it was a very underrated car. Glad to see you are restoring yours, I was disappointed when you said earlier you were going to track it! Please save
this one for posterity!

The exhausts were done by the original owner just after he bought it. It's getting tracked I'm afraid, but only for a short while. They're only small local events not a proper track day. I'll keep it stripped until I stop the leak coming in to the car and beat my mates golf on the handling course. Then once the smugness has worn off I'll be putting it all back together again.

Yep, had it made as I thought it evened up the aesphetics of the rear and it made it sound a little nicer as well without going too loud. Got the original exhaust 'hole' sourround and rubber seal from MG as I wanted it to look as if it was original.

Really glad Roverload that you are going to all this trouble, still the best paint colour I ever chose I think.

It's worth keeping up with. It has got to the point now that it really needs restoration if it's going to live. Pretty much every aspect except electrics needs attention.

[Roverload]

Thanks for the replies guys. Progress has been slow but I have been tinkering. I've mainly been investigating the underside of the car to get an idea of exactly what needs to be done and how I'm going to go about it. I've sent the wheels off to be reconditioned again so I can get the tyres on and get the car rolling again as all the tyres except one went flat within days of taking it off the road, weird because I never had any issues but now they won't hold air for no reason. The rear handbrake levers on the calipers have also seized on, luckily the ones I put on it last may are still under warranty so 2 new callipers arrived yesterday from eBay free of charge and no quibbles which was refreshing!




I need to get a pair of new handbrake cables also as I think they may have had something to do with the problem.

I ordered a filter cleaning and oiling kit from ITG for the intake, that kept me busy for a day but it was a horrific job as no matter how much cleaner you use the oil in the filter still congeales and turns very nasty, ended up having to use hot water and washing up liquid to cut through the thick white oily crap I'd created when trying to Wash out the cleaner.









I've also managed to bag myself a Rover 200 BRM gearbox with a torsen diff for the bargain price of £60 so that's my diff leak sorted and should have a slight performance advantage over the old box.

I've stripped all the arch liners out and any plastic covers I could find on the underside, I have found some new corrosion but it looks like I've caught it in time so there won't be any additional welding needed other than the jacking points. It's been down to the local garage a couple of times to investigate the welding that I know about. Have been quoted £300 to sort it once and for all but I'm not happy, upon some in depth investigation of the welding that was carried out in 2015 on the inner arches I've discovered that the chap who welded it went completely against my wishes and patch welded over the rotting panels, so the rot is still there and spreading behind the fresh metal. So much much much more welding required in the area I'd previously thought was sorted. Anyway here's a few more pics I've taken whilst tinkering.







Thanks for reading.

Edited by Roverload on Thursday 4th August 11:14

[Roverload]

Writing that gave me a burst of enthusiasm. I have now killed my starter motor. Next job is to chuck a spare on and strip down the front end of the car so I can tackle the surface rust around the tow eyes. The metal work itself seems totally solid though. Most of the metal brackets that attach other parts to the car such as headlight ballast and various radiator clips etc seem to be the worst part but again still solid. Should make a nice days work for me one weekend.
Also off to pillage a Rover 45 for various clips and motors.

[jturn]

Hi there...notice you fitted the HEL braided hoses. Would you recommend them?

Also, did you have to find any extra clips for the hoses besides what they came with? I found this post about extra rear clips for Goodridge hoses (http://forums.xpowerforums.com/archive/index.php/t-56210.html) but handily the website for them doesn't exist any more Cheers!

[Roverload]

Hi all. Quick update. The car stood for a year until I had a sudden burst of energy, something to do with the local airfield starting to run drag racing! It's had an additional £450 Of welding done. It's currently having a sheddist clutch hydraulic kit fitted and yet another set of rear callipers. Unfortunately every 3rd party who has had it in their care has damaged it so it's getting to look a bit battered. I've got alot of photos a d videos to share which I will do at some point. But the old girl lives on and will be my daily driver once more until the next catastrophic mot fail!

[Butter Face]

Are you off there on Saturday? I won't be going unfortunately but do need to get along at some point!